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Yeshayahu 40:27-41:16
[Parashat Lech Lecha]

Yeshayahu 40:27 Lamah tomar Ya'akov utedaber Yisra'el nisterah darki me'HASHEM ume'Elokai mishpati ya'avor
Yaakov, why do you say, Yisrael why do you speak: "My path is hidden from G-d and my judgment has passed on from before My G-d."

So why do you say that HASHEM sees not your travails?  Unlike the nations, you profess belief in Him, yet you complain as if you did not believe.

28 Halo yadata im-lo shamata Elokei olam HASEHM Bore ketzot ha'aretz lo yi'af velo yiga ein cheker litevunato
Do you not know, have you not heard?  The G-d of the world, HASHEM, the Creator of the earth's far ends, does not tire nor become weary; there is no grasping of His wisdom.
29 Noten laya'ef koach ule'ein onim otzmah yarbeh
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

You have certainly heard that G-d is the Creator of all - He surely knows what you endure.  Question not how He allows you to suffer, for His wisdom you cannot grasp.  How can He be too weak to help you when it is He Who grants strength to the weary?

30 Veyi'afu ne'arim veyiga'u uvachurim kashol yikashelu
You men may become tire and wear, youths may fall and stumble,
31 Vekovey HASEHM yachalifu choach ya'alu ever kansharim yarutzu velo yiga'u yelechu velo yi'afu
but those who trust in HASHEM will renew their strength and sprout wings like an eagle.  They shall run without becoming weary and march without tiring.

The persecuting nations who relied on their own strength will eventually become weary, but the trusting Jewish people will be invigorated.

And do not complain about your sufferings in exile, for through them you were refined: the "young man" who nurture their physical bodies become weak when they reach old age, but those who nurture their souls and minds continue to grow throughout the physical weakness of old age.,  They shall reach very great personal spiritual levels - they will "sprout wings like an eagle" - but will continue to "run and march" within society to edify it and will not tire of this great task.

41:1 Hacharishu elai iyim ule'umim yachalifu choach yigshu az yedaberu yachdav lamishpat nikravah
Listen to Me, islands; nations, renew your strength!  Let them come close, then let them speak; let us approach judgment together.

Those who claim that the Jewish people cannot be redeemed, who are as far from G-d as the far-flung island dwellers, are called upon to "renew" their strength - to change their material strengths for spiritual ones, to abandon their religions of power and strength and accept the spiritual one - so that they be able to approach G-d in truth. But first let them hear what G-d has to say before trying to argue with Him.

2 Mi he'ir mimizrach tzedek yikra'ehu leraglo yiten lefanav goyim umelachim yard yiten ke'afar charbo kekash nidaf kashto
Who roused [him] from the east, he who called righteousness at his steps?  Who gave the nations unto him and rule over kings, making them like dust before his sword and like driven straw before his bow?
3 Yirdefem ya'avor shalom orach beraglav lo yavo
He pursued them and came through safely, through a path he had never crossed.

Who roused Avraham from Chaldea, in the east, to "call righteousness at his steps" - to proclaim G-d wherever he went?  Who gave him the four nations which had captured his nephew, Lot, and vanquished their vastly larger numbers before him?  Who pursued them for him so that he did not lose a single man, despite their being in a foreign land, on a "path they had never crossed?"  Was it not all G-d?

Who roused Moshe to come from the east, to take Yisrael out of Egypt?  Who vanquished Egypt before him and gave him rule over the kingdoms of Midyan, Amori and Bashan, making them as dust before him?  Who led him to lead his people across the Wilderness never crossed before?  Was it not G-d Who "called at his steps," to make him His messenger unto His people?

Since G-d can do all this, He surely can bring about the Redemption of His people.

4 Mi-fa'al ve'asah koreh hadorot merosh ani HASHEM rishon ve'et-acharonim ani hu
Who did this, who accomplished this? - He Who calls the generations from the beginning. I am HASHEM, the First, and I shall be with the last ones.

Why did G-d do that for Avraham?  Because He "called from the beginning" - He knew Avraham's righteous offspring of the future.  Why did G-d empower Avraham over the four mighty kings who captured Lot?  Tos symbolize his descendants' four exiles, reassuring him that as He was the "First" to be with him, He would be with the "last" of his exiled descendants.  As He roused Avraham to leaven his native Chaldea for Kenaan, would He rouse future generations to leave the exile for the Promised Land.

5 Ra'u iyim veyira'u ketzot ha'aretz yecheradu karevu vaye'etayun
The islands saw and feared, the ends of the earth trembled; the [nations] drew near and came.

When the nations heard of Avraham's victory over the four kings, they feared and trembled and came to greet Avraham.  But rather than draw the conclusion that it was G-d Who had helped him, they just reaffirmed their faith in their lifeless gods.

6 Ish et-re'ehu ya'azoru ule'achiv yomar chazak
Each one helped the other and told him, "Be strong!"
7 Vayechazek charash et-tzoref machalik patish et-holem pa'am omer ladevek tov hu vayechazkehu vemasmerim lo yimot
The woodchopper encouraged the goldsmith, and the one who smooths with the hammer [encouraged] the one who pounds on the anvil.  They say of the soldering, "It is good!" and fasten it with nails so it does not move.

They continued their foolish ways even after Avraham's victory, each one encouraging the other to more idol worship.  The idolmakers urged on each other at each stage of the work to hurry and finish the job.  And what is the finished job that they all worship? - a piece of wood with sheet metal glued and nailed on it.

8 Ve'atah Yisra'el avdi Ya'akov asher beharticha zera Avraham ohavi
But you are My servant Yisrael and My chosen Yaakov, the seed of Avraham, My beloved.
9 Asher hechezakticha miketzot ha'aretz ume'atzileyha keraticha va'omar lecha avdi-atah becharticha velo me'asticha
I took you from the ends of the earth and called you from its far corners.  I told you, You are My servant - I chose you and did not reject you!

But you, people of Yisrael, are not like them, but follow the ways of My servant Yaakov.  It was in Yaakov's merit - whose children were all righteous - that I saved Avraham, when Yaakov was still merely Avraham's "seed."

I took hold of Avraham from his faraway homeland, from the "end of the earth," and called your maternal ancestors from its far comers, from Lavan the Aramean, their father.  While you were still in the Egyptian exile, I called you My servants, having sent you there for your refinement - not to reject you.

And as I had done this for your ancestors, I shall do it also for you and bring you back from being exiled to the earth's farm corners.  I shall call you to come back from under the nations' rule and they will be helpless to prevent you.

10 Al-tira ki imcha-ani al-tishta ki ani Elokeicha imatzticha af-azarticha af-temachticha bimin tzidki
Fear not, for I am with you; be not fainthearted, for I am your G-d.  I shall strengthen you and help you, even supporting you with My righteous right hand.

So fear not, Jewish people, says G-d, for I have strengthened you in the past with encouraging words and helped you in days gone by.  Let not the long exile make you fainthearted, for I am with you throughout it to support you.  I shall strengthen you and help you against the onslaught of the nations so that they be unable to separate you from Me, your G-d.  Fear not those nations among which you dwell, as Avraham feared not those mighty kings.

11 Hen yevoshu veyikalmu kol hanecherim bach yihyu che'ayin veyovdu anshei rivecha
They shall be shamed and disgraced, all those who contend with you. They shall be naught and disappear, those who contend with you.
12 Tevakshem velo timtza'em anshei matzutecha yihyu che'ayin uche'efes anshei milchamtecha
You shall seek them and not find them, those who quarrel with you; they shall be naught and nothing, those who fight with you.

The Babylonians who had exiled you, thinking you would never return, will be shamed when they see you returning.  Those who contend with you to prevent the Second Temple's rebuilding, including Haman who sought to destroy you, will be themselves nothing but naught.  The Greeks who quarreled with you to undermine you with their culture, will disappear from being a world power.  And Rome-Western civilization which will fight you in insidious ways, will in the end come to naught.

13 Ki ani HASHEM Elokeicha machazik yeminecha ha'omer lecha al-tira ani azarticha
For I am HASHEM, your G-d, Who strengthens your right hand, Who tells you, Fear not, got I shall help you!
14 Al-tir'i tola'at Ya'akov metei Yisra'el ani azarticha ne'um-HASHEM vego'alech Kedosh Yisra'el
Fear not, worm of Yaakov, the few of Yisrael, I shall help you! says G-d, your Redeemer and the Holy One of Yisrael.

Your new found strength and the nations' weakness against you are both My doing, says HaShem.  You may be weak as a worm compared to the nations, but as a worm fells a cedar just with its mouth, shall you fell the nations merely with your prayers.

15 Hineh samtich lemorag charutz chadash ba'al pifi'ot tadush harim vetadok ugeva'ot kamotz tasim
I have made you like a new threshing board, bristling with sharp teeth. You shll thresh the mountains and crush them and make the hills like chaff.

And a single threshing board can grind many mountains, will the Jewish people, despite their small numbers, be able to "grind" many kings.

16 Tizrem veruach tisa'em use'arah tafitz otam ve'atah tagil ba'HASHEM biKedosh Yisra'el titehalal
You shall scatter them and a wind shall carry them, a storm will then disperse them.  But you shall rejoice in HASHEM and praise the Holy One of Yisrael.

Though the nations will be thrashed, you will not rejoice at the downfall of your enemies.  Instead, you will rejoice that now you are returning to HaShem and will praise Him for making you the instrument of His Holy Name.

- MeAm Lo'ez

Parashat Lech Lecha